BMX riders took a minute to honour a fallen competitor before going hell-for-leather on Sunday.

More than 240 riders from all over Queensland descended on the Townsville BMX Club for the opening round of the season — The 2014 Pro-Gate Smackdown.

For two days competitors from two years old through to masters put on a high-speed spectacular.

But the second annual Luke Matthews Memorial Cup was what everyone was waiting for.

Created to honour former Townsville BMX member Matthews, who died tragically in a motorcycle accident in 2009, the Pro-Men let no one down as highly-rated southern rider Joel Clark surged to victory to claim the cup in the final in a blistering 33.399 secs.

“It was an intense race, the Pro Men’s is always a good spectacle and always very good to watch,” Townsville BMX Club secretary Karralyn Maluga said.

Cairns Joseph Costa finished in third place.

It was a dominant weekend for Clarke, who won four of his five motos before clinching the semi final and final, where he stepped it up another notch, recording his best time of the meet by more than half a second.

In the Pro Women, out-of-town riders took the spoils as Cairns BMX Club’s Ashleigh Gunn lived up to her name by winning the final ahead of clubmate Jacinta Pink.

Mackay’s Katie Van Zanden came third.

The next round will be hosted by the Burdekin BMX club on March 22-23.